'Your eyes and ski mask are burned into my brain'

Teen sentenced in Circuit Court to 1 year in detention in attempted home invasion, felonious assault

Karen BotaKaren.bota@sentinel-standard.com

The Ronald Township teen who terrorized a neighbor with a machete and shotgun early this year was sentenced Tuesday, Aug. 12, in Ionia County 8th Circuit Court.

The 16-year-old will serve one year in a detention center or other secure facility for each of the two counts against him, concurrently, with credit for 194 days already served. Judge Suzanne Hoseth Kreeger also placed him on a minimum of three years of probation, at least six months of which will be on an electronic monitoring tether. He must pay fines and fees, have no contact with the victim and her family, and participate in treatment.

Kreeger said the teen’s sentence warranted “something less than a prison sentence,” because he has no prior criminal record and has “special needs.”

“Your choices from this point forward are extremely important,” Kreeger told him. “As soon as you are released, there will be treatment ... so you do have hope in your life and can experience something other than despair.”

The teen entered a no-contest plea in June to two felonies: attempted home invasion in the first degree, which carries a penalty of up to five years in prison; and assault with a dangerous weapon, also known as felonious assault, which carries a penalty of up to four years and/or a $2,000 fine.

He was 15 when, at 2 a.m. Jan. 31, he donned a ski mask and, carrying the two weapons, came to a neighbor’s front door and began hitting the glass with the machete. When Ionia County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrived, he hid behind a vehicle in the driveway before finally surrendering.

The victim, who was home alone with two children, called 911 to report a prowler and then armed herself with a handgun.

The teen was charged as an adult.

“The impact of your crime is beyond words. Your eyes and ski mask are burned into my brain. I really thought you were going to kill me,” the victim said in the two-page statement she read at the teen’s sentencing. “We should not have to live like this because of your bad choices. … You sent my life into a tailspin. … You took away the security of being in our own home. You have no idea what you've done to me.”

The victim told the court she wanted the teen to be punished to the fullest extent possible.

“I don’t think the plea is fair,” she said to Kreeger. “If it was you and your little girls, you would think a lot different.”

Evonne Ulmer, the teen’s attorney, noted her client was “not a typical defendant.” In addition to suffering from severe depression and “an overwhelming sense of sadness and despair, he also has autism spectrum disorder, she said. Although intelligent, he has difficulty processing information and expressing his thoughts.

“(He) is painfully aware that he is different from his peers,” Ulmer said. “He came up with a plan: somebody would shoot him in the house or the police would shoot him. He headed to the closest home he could find. He wasn't looking to harm anybody; the only person he wanted to harm was himself.”

The teen expressed remorse as he addressed the victim, but explained that there was a reason for what he did.

“I was very depressed, and sick and tired of the pain,” he said. “I don't know your pain, but you don't know mine. I was hoping to end all the pain permanently.”

Kreeger acknowledged that she was trying to balance “two strong and competing interests here”: the teen’s age and circumstances, and how he affected the lives of the victim and her family.

“The approach here, first and foremost, is requiring treatment for you,” she said as she sentenced him. “(But) there also must be punishment in light of the magnitude (of the crime).

“I know you were listening to how your actions impacted her and her children,” said Kreeger. “It’s important you learn to ask for help in the right way.”

Follow Karen Bota on Twitter @KarenB_ISS.

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